UFW'S DUES BOONDOGGLE NIPPED BY ALRB

Late last month the Agricultural Labor Relations Board ordered the United Farmworkers union to refund a portion of dues payments to some of the 400 workers it represents at California Mushroom Farm inc. in Ventura(formerly Pictsweet). The board found that the union had deliberately misled workers about their rights not to join or not to fund its political activities.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the ALRB found that the union failed to inform the mushroom pickers that they have a right to withhold the portion of their dues that supports political lobbying. It also found that workers who withheld the money were threatened by the union with the false claim that the employer must fire them.

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BINDING ARBITRATION PROVES CHALLENGING IN NAPA

The first contract to be established by binding arbitration under the amended Agricultural Labor Relations Act is proving to be more difficult to administer than perhaps any of the proponents of arbitration foresaw. The contract covers field workers at the Hess Collection Winery in Napa.

Provisions of the contract were established by an arbitrator after he received sample contracts from the employer and the union, and blended them into what he considered an acceptable compromise.

What appeared last month as a smooth path toward an agreement has become bogged down in disagreements over several contract issues, even though the employer has made a blanket offer to accept the union's stated position on a majority of them. The company's desire to reach agreement seems not to be shared by the union(United Food & Commercial Workers) or the ALRB.

Nevertheless, the ALRB has further extended the deadline for settlement to allow the two parties to reach agreement.

One of the more positive outcomes is the employer's plan to conduct a seminar for other employers in the Napa area in regard to union relationships and contract negotiations. Only a few of the growers in the area are encumbered by contracts with unions representing their employees. The meeting is scheduled for April 18, probably at a downtown Napa hotel or meeting facility.

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BOYCOTTING AND SUSTAINABILITY, TWO OF A KIND

AN EDITORIAL

Not since the boycotting of table grapes in the 1969-70 season, again in 1973(with Gallo wine) and boycotting of lettuce on-again, off-again from'72 to '78 and a weak attempt at renewal in 1984 have food retailers been so besieged. Now, instead of flag-waving, huelga-shouting scruffies in their corporate offices, the retail managers are being confronted by the disciples of global warming who are demanding that products sold at retail be produced sustainably -- whatever that means.

The new-age proponents of organic production, natural methods and a green planet have found a weapon to threaten major retailers that the rag-tag boycotters never possessed - money. Their numbers include some of the world's most successful businessmen, a fact that turns the heads of corporate food executives on the rise and at the top. When the icons of success pitch their money into the equation the pressure becomes almost irresistible.

But a huge share of dishonesty is at the core of this movement. The food retail executives who fawn over the rich and powerful can't find the backbone to admit that they are submitting to not-so-subtle pressure. Instead they announce that their customers are demanding the move to sustainability.

How many grocery shoppers are going to march up to the manager or the produce manager at their favorite supermarket and demand that products on the shelves be grown by sustainable methods? Only in a dream world can that number be more than a fraction of the total clientele.

While the new-age pressure groups, and apparently some retail food executives, want us to believe they are performing a noble service, they are really tinkering dangerously with the world's most reliable system of food production and distribution - for no good reason.

In the first place every definition of sustainability that comes down the pike is fuzzy and indistinct. Some naively accept these interpretations as harmless, but they are not. Neither are they logical.

One definition of sustainability offered by the University of California includes the provision that the qualifying agricultural enterprise(farm) embrace adequate social equity. Many midnight candles can be burned in a hundred smoky coffee houses before that term is clearly defined.

And once social equity and other components of sustainability are defined sufficiently for all to understand, who's to say the terms won't change in a year or two, or maybe a day or two?

What's to prevent "sustainable means," clearly defined today, from including a ban on all pesticides tomorrow, or carrying it to the ridiculous, all tractors? Just what food consumers need is more horse-drawn strawberry harvesters.

Agriculture in general, and those who make policies affecting it, especially in California, need to tap into the experience of some of those hardy souls who were around in the dark days of the grape, lettuce and wine boycotts, and some boycott efforts aimed at a dozen or more commodities. Their experiences and resolve in contemplating messages or pressure from outside forces suggesting or demanding change is a treasure that should not be disregarded. Sustainability might be a bullet alright, but it's not the magic one. And even with gobs of money thrown at it, it won't become a silver bullet either.

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ELECTION ACTIVITY HEATS UP IN TULARE COUNTY

Farm labor election activity has heated up around the dairy industry in Tulare and Kings Counties. A total of eight notices of intent to organize have been filed on dairies in the two counties, plus four notices of intent to take access, all in Tulare County. Each has been filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union headquartered in San Jose. An election is set for next week at the Garcia Dairy in Tulare covering 21 workers.

Also at issue with the Visalia regional office of the ALRB are questions growing out of an election drive at Tuls Cattle Ranch Co. in Tulare, not a dairy. An employee was terminated there for misconduct as the drive began, causing the ALRB regional office to seek a restraining order to restrict the employer's communication with employees.

However, the court refused to grant an injunction, setting a time two weeks hence to review the issues. The ALRB's expectation that the employee should be reinstated before the court review indicates a new degree of activism on the board's part. Coupled with the aggressive stance of the UFCW in its new format as an amalgamation of five separate union locals, a more lively labor action season might be ahead in the dairy industry and elsewhere.

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CARD CHECK PROPOSAL STILL BENEATH THE SURFACE

The perennial union scheme of using a simple sign-up of employees(called a card check) to gain approval of a union is still bubbling beneath the surface in Sacramento and Washington. Implementation of the system takes the place of secret ballot elections, and makes it much easier for a union to gain recognition.

A bill in Congress to establish the card check system as part of the National Labor Relations Act procedure floated earlier in the year, but appears bound for oblivion. President Bush announced that he will veto any such bill if it ever gets to him.

Efforts to implement the procedure as part of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act undoubtedly have been discouraged by the action in Washington. However, among union-loving Democrats in Sacramento the system is still a goal. Agricultural lobbyists and others active in state capitol affairs are keeping their eyes on committee hearing announcements and submissions.

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